“YOU WILL HAVE TRIBULATION!”

 John 16:29-33                     (ESV)

“[29] HIS (JESUS’) disciples said, “Ah, now YOU are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! [30] Now we know that YOU know all things and do not need anyone to question YOU; this is why we believe that YOU came from GOD.” [31] JESUS answered them, DO YOU NOW BELIEVE?  [32] Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, WHEN YOU WILL BE SCATTERED, each to his own home, and WILL LEAVE ME ALONE. Yet I am not alone, FOR THE FATHER IS WITH ME. [33] I have said these things to you, that IN ME YOU MAY HAVE PEACE. In the world “YOU WILL HAVE TRIBULATION”. But TAKE HEART; I HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD.”

John 17 is one of my favorite passages Scripture in the whole BIBLE!  In the passage of Scripture above, JESUS is just about to pray the HIGH PRIESTLY PRAYER  in John 17.  The RIGHTEOUS SON OF GOD is awesomely close to completing HIS earthly purpose, to REDEEM the sins of the world!  But humanity has the tendency to try to act as though the verse prior to John 17 was written!!

But regardless of what some people think and say, JESUS never promised that HIS CHOSEN wouldn’t experience TRIBULATION!  As a matter of fact, in verse 33 above HE PLAINLY states “…IN ME YOU MAY HAVE PEACE. In the world “YOU WILL HAVE TRIBULATION.”  But TAKE HEART; I HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD!”  The pain that lay in the next few days was something that HE, the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSES, had NEVER EXPERIENCED!  Being separated from HIS FATHER was something that had never happened!  

In the final phrase of the sixteenth chapter of John JESUS says I HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD, even though death, hell, the cross and the grave was still in HIS future.  But JESUS KNEW that HE had come to “this world” for a PURPOSE, so HE PROCLAIMED something that ONLY HE could say!!!  

The disciples weren’t “super-beings” who were living above sin!  Within a few verses EVERY ONE OF THEM would FLEE from even knowing JESUS!  Were they WEAK and timid?  Or were they simply doing what HE said they would do when HE said YOU WILL LEAVE ME ALONE???  When JESUS said “YOU WILL HAVE TRIBULATION” HE might have said that to inform me that my sins are made to prove that JESUS can LOVE even the WORST of people!! JESUS CHOSE ME BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD (Ephesians 1:4), but “YOU WILL HAVE TRIBULATION” is a PROMISE in Scripture that most people want to ignore???  “YOU WILL HAVE TRIBULATION!!!”

Ephesians 2:8-9

 ‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭8‬-‭9‬ ‭                    (HCSB‬‬)

“For you are “SAVED BY GRACE” through FAITH, and this is not from yourselves; it is GOD’s gift — NOT FROM WORKS, so that NO ONE can boast.”

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“STAND!”

 I “STAND” amazed in the PRESENCE of JESUS the Nazarene!  

These are the first words of a hymn written In the early 1900s by Charles H. Gabriel (1856-1932).  Notice that Mr. Gabriel didn’t write about doing great and wondrous deeds to advance the KINGDOM OF GOD, but he wrote that he would “STAND” AMAZED (or AWESTRUCK!) that JESUS would CHOOSE him to be a child of HIS!

John 15:16 says “You DID NOT CHOOSE ME, BUT I CHOSE YOU and APPOINTED YOU that YOU SHOULD GO AND BEAR FRUIT and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ASK THE FATHER IN MY NAME, HE may give it to you.”  

Sometimes we have to “STAND” still before HE can get HIS MESSAGE into our thick skull!  Eighteen years ago today I was an almost three week coma before GOD permitted me to remain on earth to just “STAND”!  HE CHANGED me from being a loud, voracious person to a more HUMBLE man, one who would be USED to let people know that HE left me here to “STAND”!!!

“THEY MAY BECOME PERFECTLY ONE!”

John 17:20-23                    (ESV)

“[20] “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who WILL believe in ME through their word, [21] that they may all be ONE, just as YOU, FATHER, are in ME, and I in YOU, that THEY also may be in US, so that the world may believe that YOU have sent ME. [22] The glory that YOU have given ME I have given to THEM, that THEY may be ONE even as WE are ONE, [23] I in them and YOU in ME, that “THEY MAY BECOME PERFECTLY ONE”, SO THAT THE WORLD MAY KNOW THAT YOU SENT ME AND LOVED THEM EVEN AS YOU LOVED ME.”

A few years ago my pastor at the time was leading our fellowship through a study through the book of John.  It was quite extensive, taking almost two years to complete!  As I begin contemplating these four (4) verses I can see why it took three years for my former pastor to get through the book of John.   

JESUS’ HIGH PRIESTLY PRAYER was prayed during a highly emotional and intense time!  Luke 22:44 even states “…And being IN AGONY HE prayed more earnestly; and HIS SWEAT BECAME LIKE GREAT DROPS OF BLOOD falling down to the ground.”  HE KNEW GODS PLAN though and HE WAS COMMITTED to paying the debt for my sinful life to be REDEEMED!!!

JESUS not only endured the brutal scourging and pain of crucifixion, HE was REJECTED by the FATHER when JESUS took my sin and carried it to the altar of Calvary’s Cross!!  Verse 23 above says words that MUST BE listened to with DIVINE understanding, “I (JESUS) in them and YOU (HEAVENLY FATHER) in ME, that “THEY (me) MAY BECOME PERFECTLY ONE”, SO THAT THE WORLD MAY KNOW THAT YOU SENT ME AND LOVED THEM EVEN AS YOU LOVED ME.”

John 3:16 PLAINLY states “For GOD SO LOVED  the world, that HE gave HIS ONLY SON, that whoever believes in HIM should not perish but have ETERNAL LIFE.”  THE PLAN was HIS to complete…….and HE DID!!!

“THE LORD APPEARED TO SOLOMON IN THE NIGHT!”

 2 Chronicles 7:11-18                    (ESV)

If MY People Pray

“[11] Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD and the king’s house. All that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the LORD and in his own house he successfully accomplished. [12] Then “THE LORD APPEARED TO SOLOMON IN THE NIGHT” and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for MYSELF as a house of sacrifice. [13] When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, [14] if MY people who are called by MY name HUMBLE THEMSELVES, and PRAY and SEEK MY FACE and TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS, THEN I WILL HEAR from heaven AMD WILL FORGIVE THEIR SIN and heal their land. [15] Now MY EYES will be open and MY EARS attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. [16] For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that MY NAME may be there forever. MY EYES and MY HEART will be there for all time. [17] AND AS FOR YOU, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, doing according to all that I have commanded you and keeping MY statutes and MY rules, [18] then I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to rule Israel.’

One of the most beneficial things that came about from the Brain Hemorrhage of 2007 was my having to NOT HAVE background noise going on, like especially when I am driving!  I found this out when I was driving a few months after my hospitalization and everything felt like it was crashing in around me.  I turned the sound system off and things began to clear up and I started functioning again, as well as a Brain Damaged person should be able to!

King Solomon was GIFTED by THE ALMIGHTY with WISDOM. like no man previously nor since (1 Kings 3:28)!  With his wisdom though, King Solomon HAD to WAIT FOR THE LORD to speak him and give him direction!  GOD has HIS OWN timetable and even King Solomon was required to WAIT FOR THE LORD (Psalms 27:14), as written by King Solomon’s dad!!!  Even the CHOSEN King of Israel HAD to listen to his CREATOR!  

Even though King Solomon was the leader of Israel and wise beyond his peers, he was REQUIRED to WAIT FOR THE LORD before “THE LORD APPEARED TO SOLOMON IN THE NIGHT”!  The busyness of “this world” had to be silenced and his attention needed to be focused on things he had no ability to control or accomplish. His mind needed to be receptive to hear from HEAVEN!  Only then would “THE LORD APPEARED TO SOLOMON IN THE NIGHT”!!!

“THE LORD SHUT HIM IN!”

 Genesis 7:13-20                    (ESV)

“[13] On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, [14] they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. [15] They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. [16] And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as GOD HAD COMMANDED HIM.  And “THE LORD SHUT HIM IN”.

[17] The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and IT ROSE HIGH ABOVE THE EARTH. [18] The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. [19] And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. [20] The waters prevailed ABOVE THE MOUNTAINS, covering them FIFTEEN CUBITS DEEP.”

The historical account of THE FLOOD that Noah and his family were BLESSED to be able to get DELIVERED through has been GREATLY misunderstood.  The final verse of the seventh chapter of Genesis says “And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days”.  So basically FIVE MONTHS after THE RAIN had ceased, a dove was sent out from the ark and it returned that afternoon.  Seven days later the dove came back with “a freshly plucked olive leaf” giving indication that the waters had subsided.  Another week this endeavor was tried again, and the dove did not return!

HOW DID the inhabitants of the ark survive such a long journey in such brutal conditions and circumstances?  They had NO experience in sailing as rain is first mentioned in the Bible in Genesis 7:14.  Scripture states in Genesis  “…ALL THE FOUNTAINS OF THE GREAT DEEP BURST FORTH, AND THE WINDOWS OF THE HEAVENS WERE OPENED.”  Since rain had yet to be introduced to humanity, the PLANS for the ark had to be completed PRECISELY as GOD had given them, wouldn’t you think?  Any perceived flaw could have CERTAINLY caused concern, putting it mildly???

Noah was a flawed human being!  Why did GOD CHOOSE Noah to deliver from the rest of humanity to survive the FLOOD?  GOD KNEW that Noah would do EXACTLY as he was COMMANDED and humanity would survive because of his obedience.  But the SAVING GRACE during the ENTIRE FLOOD scenario was “THE LORD SHUT HIM IN”.  

GOD has DELIVERED me through some SERIOUS and MONUMENTAL storms in my life, but HE IS the CREATOR, and HE also makes the storms!  “THE LORD SHUT HIM IN” gives me comfort to know that GOD ALMIGHTY HAS A PLAN, and I just need to get in the ark and PRAISE HIS NAME!!!

“GLADDEN THE SOUL OF YOUR SERVANT!”

 Psalm 86

Great Is YOUR Steadfast Love

A Prayer of David.

    “[1] Incline YOUR ear, O LORD, and answer me,

        for I am poor and needy. 

    [2] Preserve my life, for I am godly;

        save YOUR servant, who trusts in YOU—YOU are my GOD. 

    [3] Be gracious to me, O LORD,

        for to YOU do I cry all the day. 

    [4] “GLADDEN THE SOUL OF YOUR SERVANT”,

        for to YOU, O LORD , do I lift up my soul. 

    [5] For YOU, O LORD, are good and forgiving,

        abounding in steadfast love to ALL who call upon YOU. 

    [6] Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer;

        listen to my plea for grace. 

    [7] In the day of my trouble I call upon YOU,

        for YOU answer me.

    [8] There is none like YOU among the gods, O LORD,

        nor are there any works like YOURS. 

    [9] All the nations YOU have made shall come

        and worship before YOU, O LORD,

        and shall glorify YOUR NAME. 

    [10] For YOU are great and do wondrous things;

        YOU alone are GOD. 

    [11] Teach me YOUR WAY, O LORD,

        that I may walk in YOUR TRUTH;

        unite my heart to fear YOUR NAME. 

    [12] I give thanks to YOU, O LORD my GOD, with my whole heart,

        and I will glorify YOUR NAME forever. 

    [13] For great is YOUR steadfast love toward me;

        YOU have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

    [14] O GOD, insolent men have risen up against me;

        a band of ruthless men seeks my life,

        and they do not set YOU before them. 

    [15] But YOU, O LORD, are a GOD merciful and gracious,

        slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. 

    [16] Turn to me and be gracious to me;

        give YOUR strength to YOUR servant,

        and save the son of YOUR maidservant. 

    [17] Show me a sign of YOUR favor,

        that those who hate me may see and be put to shame

        because YOU, LORD, have helped me and comforted me.” 

“I LOVE YOU!”

 Isaiah 43:1-4                    (ESV)

Israel’s Only Savior

    “[1] But now thus says the LORD,

    HE WHO CREATED you, O Jacob,

        HE WHO FORMED you, O Israel:

    “Fear not, for I HAVE REDEEMED YOU;

        I have called you by name, YOU ARE MINE. 

    [2] WHEN you pass through the waters, I WILL BE WITH YOU;

        and through the rivers, THEY SHALL NOT OVERWHELM YOU;

    when you walk through fire YOU SHALL NOT BE BURNED,

        and THE FLAME SHALL NOT CONSUME YOU. 

    [3] For I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD,

        the HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL, YOUR SAVIOR.

    I give Egypt as your ransom,

        Cush and Seba in exchange for you. 

    [4] Because YOU ARE PRECIOUS IN MY EYES,

        and honored, and “I LOVE YOU”,

    I give men in return for you,

        peoples in exchange for your life.”

Many (maybe 30+?) years ago I was distraught by the predicament that I faced with the business that GOD had given me, so I went to a secluded place where I was certain GOD would be able to speak to me?  I was so “misinformed” that it wasn’t GOD WHO needed to change, but I had to remove so many distractions from my life and listen more intently for HIS direction in my life. I opened my Bible and it was at Isaiah 43, the verses listed above!  

In verse two Scripture records “WHEN you pass through the waters, I WILL BE WITH YOU; and through the rivers, THEY SHALL NOT OVERWHELM YOU when you walk through fire YOU SHALL NOT BE BURNED, and THE FLAME SHALL NOT CONSUME YOU.”  Notice Scripture doesn’t say IF you go through difficult times, it says WHEN I GO THROUGH THEM!!! I probably didn’t want to listen to what was being said, but I got back home and there was a $100 bill sent to me anonymously that took care of my family’s immediate needs for that day!!  

Could it be that ALMIGHTY GOD might have been trying to tell me that the WATER WAS going to get DEEP and that the FIRE would DEFINITELY be HOT, but HE WOULD BE WITH ME…….NO MATTER WHAT???

The “journey” I have traveled has been FAR from easy, but I AM PRECIOUS IN HIS SIGHT and HE PAID THE PRICE ALREADY for my sinful choices!  Why did HE select me to be ONE of HIS CHOSEN?  The simple words “I LOVE YOU” says it all!!!

Isaiah 43:1

 Isaiah 43:1                    (ESV)

Israel’s Only Savior

    “[1] But now thus says the LORD,

    HE WHO CREATED YOU, O Jacob,

        HE WHO FORMED YOU, O Israel:

    “Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

        I have called you by name, YOU ARE MINE.”

“LET NO ONE DECEIVE YOU!”

 Ephesians 5:6-11                    (ESV)

“[6] “LET NO ONE DECEIVE YOU” with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of GOD comes upon the sons of disobedience. [7] Therefore DO NOT BECOME PARTNERS WITH THEM; [8] for AT ONE TIME YOU WERE IN DARKNESS, BUT NOW YOU ARE LIGHT IN THE LORD. WALK AS CHILDREN OF LIGHT [9] (for the fruit of LIGHT is found in all that is good and right and true), [10] and TRY TO DISCERN WHAT IS PLEASING TO THE LORD. [11] Take NO PART in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.”

For this Brain Damaged Child of GOD, losing my FOCUS generally is a result of not spending enough time in THE WORD and in PRAYER!!!  Maybe I should revert to my pre-retirement mindset of spending time with GOD before I begin my day and see if that alleviates my busyness problems???

JESUS HIMSELF says in John 8:39-47 that “our enemy” is “the father of lies”!  We should expect NOTHING but DECEIT when we hear from anyone EXCEPT THE FATHER!  

The Apostle Paul writes in the text above “LET NO ONE DECEIVE YOU”!  Whenever “fear and doubt” start trying to enter my mind, it is usually because I am listening to “the enemy” INSTEAD of the PROMISE from THE LORD!  

Years ago the Imperials had a song entitled “Old Man’s Rubble”.  One excerpt from the song is “And just by listening you've made a decision , 'Cause the voice you hear is gonna win the fight”.  

The first thing that I need to do to assure to “LET NO ONE DECEIVE YOU” is to NOT LISTEN to the lies coming from “the enemy”!  I AM A CHILD OF THE KING OF KINGS!!!  Listening to “death and destruction” brings about “death and destruction”!!!  “LET NO ONE DECEIVE YOU”, the ONLY WAY we can experience TRUTH is by listening to THE WORD!!!

“WAIT, I SAY, ON THE LORD!”

 Psalms 27:14 (KJV)

“Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and HE shall strengthen thine heart: “WAIT, I SAY, ON THE LORD”.

Eighteen years ago I awoke at 5:30 AM needing to relieve myself. I was the going back to bed. But my legs failed to uphold me and I fell on my face in my bedroom floor! I didn’t know that my brain had developed a leak (hemorrhage) and how near death I was!!!

Looking back I now can SEE that ALMIGHTY GOD really is/was in CONTROL! There are some who profess that our CREATOR IS IN CONTROL, but we tend to operate as if we are the one making decisions about what we will do and where we will go!  

Following the recovery from what at the time was an eighty percent fatality rate, I tried to go back to work. But I didn’t understand ( I couldn’t SEE!) that GOD was still teaching me how to SLOW DOWN and WAIT ON THE LORD!  

Eighteen years ago I couldn’t SEE that GOD didn’t require me to assist HIM to do ANYTHING! HE granted me the opportunity to BREATHE everyday (Isaiah 42:5). While HE is STILL teaching me, I am STILL LEARNING to “WAIT, I SAY, ON THE LORD”!!!

“I CHOSE YOU!”

 John 15:12-17                    (ESV)

“[12] “This is MY commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. [13] Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. [14] YOU ARE MY FRIENDS IF YOU DO WHAT I COMMAND YOU. [15] No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. [16] You did NOT choose ME, but “I CHOSE YOU” and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the FATHER in MY NAME, HE MAY GIVE IT TO YOU. [17] These things I command you, so that you will love one another."

Ephesians 1:4                    (ESV)

“[4] even as HE CHOSE US IN HIM BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD, THAT WE SHOULD BE HOLY AND BLAMELESS BEFORE HIM.”

2 Timothy 1:8-12                    (ESV)

“[8] Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of GOD, [9] WHO SAVED US AND CALLED US TO A HOLY CALLING, NOT BECAUSE OF OUR WORKS BUT BECAUSE OF HIS OWN PURPOSE AND GRACE, WHICH HE GAVE US IN CHRIST JESUS BEFORE THE AGES BEGAN, [10] and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our SAVIOR CHRIST JESUS, WHO abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, [11] for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, [12] which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know WHOM I have believed, and I am convinced that HE IS ABLE  to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.”

There are times when I tend to get in the way of what GOD is trying to SAY to me by saying what “sounds” better IN MY EYES!!!

GOD CHOSE, (or “ELECTED”) me even though HE FOREKNEW that I would be precisely who I am and that I would be the FOREMOST of aggressors of the PERFECTION that HE came to earth to display for humanity!!!